Dink lumbered down from the cliff face onto the valley floor, peering up at the Harpies circling like vultures high overhead. Shaking his head to himself, Dink made his way to the side of Harmon’s corpse. Crouching down, he gently closed his eyes which were locked wide in terror during their st moments. Wart hopped from Dink’s shoulder onto Harmon’s immobile chest, turning to gaze up at Dink with a saddened expression.

  “Mew?”

  “It’s not much, but this is the best I can do for you, fallen warrior,” Dink stood, wind gushing around him as the enormous Griffon settled on the valley behind him. Wart shielded himself from the galeforce winds by clinging behind Dink’s leg.

  Scooping up Wart, Dink spun and unceremoniously grabbed a handful of feathers to haul himself onto the beast’s back. Standing in imaginary stirrups, Dink drew the Dragonbone sword from his spine. The Griffon unfurled its proud wings, powerfully pushing off the ground. Seeing the Harpies swirling above, Dink’s face hardened when returning his gaze to Harmon’s exposed body.

  “They won’t taste your flesh on my watch, Harmon. Whoeet!” Dink promised, ruthlessly swinging his sword. A sonic ssh hurtled into the nearby cliff face, and within moments the sound of splitting rock filled the valley.

  “Caw!” the Harpies objected above as an artificial ndslide buried Harmon under tons of stone. Returning the Dragonbone sword to his spine, Dink smirked at the Harpies' dismay at losing their meal.

  “That direction,” Dink instructed, leaning close to point past the Griffon’s eye, opposite the setting sun.

  Dust bnketed the valley and obscured the Harpies overhead. Dink and the rge Griffon disappeared amid the chaos. By the time the dust cleared, all trace of them was gone. The Harpy flock swooped down to rummage through the rocks in search of Harmon’s corpse, screeching in frustration. Only one remained in the air, Dink’s lover watched the Griffon turn into a speck over the horizon, her thoughts unknown.

  ***

  Dink soared through the night on the back of the Griffon. They travelled by flight faster than anything he had experienced before without channelling mana. The Three Sisters, Nyre’s three moons, illuminated their path. They burst from the cover of clouds, streaking out a vapour trail behind them. The Griffon was unexpectedly descending at a rapid pace. Wart desperately clung to Dink’s neck, the wind comically distorting his face.

  “Hey, what’s that?” Dink asked, pointing at a white speck below them quickly getting closer. Dink directed mana to his vision and his heightened Goblin eyesight quickly sharpened, bringing the Griffon’s prey into focus. “Is that a blighted Pegasus?”

  “Roar!” the Griffon roared its affirmation without understanding his words in the common tongue.

  Extending all sets of cws, the Griffon snatched the flying horse from the sky in a puff of pristine white feathers fluttering in the moonlight. The Pegasus was still in mid-turn when it was caught, too slow to react to the unexpected ambush. Griffons traditionally hunted during daylight while Pegasus were nocturnal creatures. They usually didn’t cross paths with one another at all.

  That answers that. As a boy, I dreamt of one day riding a heroic Pegasus and descending upon a crowd of adoring wenches. Those dreams were childish, a ferocious king of the sky beats a pansy flying horse. The Sword Saint, unparalleled in combat deserves an equally fierce mount. We have yet to leave the Griffon’s territory, I have time to enjoy it.

  Dink grinned in the moonlight, listening to the sound of crunching bone and the tearing of flesh. Finishing its feast, the Griffon unleashed a roar of challenge to any within its territory that might hear it. Dropping the Pegasus remains, Dink leaned over to watch them fall. All that was left was its untouched head and majestic white mane. It tumbled through the air towards a forest taking form at the base of the mountains.

  It quickly changed to thick woods as they left the mountains behind them. Dink immediately noticed a change in the Griffon’s powerful muscles. Their flight speed slowed by an amount that would be imperceptible to anyone else. The beat of its wings became slightly more boured but remained impressive. They had left the range of the Griffon’s territory to enter the realm of attrition.

  The Griffon’s Roc bloodline is taking effect. This is the true reason why none take a Griffon as a mount. Their stamina is limitless within the mountains, at one with the nd, an apex predator that keeps all other species' poputions under control. But its rge body cannot be sustained naturally forever.

  The beast is smarter than I gave it credit for, it knew this and chose to hunt the Pegasus in order to prepare for our travel. The speed is incredible, what would have taken me and Wart a week on foot should be traversed in a single night. I can feel Murkuk getting closer through our bond.

  Dink remained silent on the Griffon’s back, only speaking up to readjust their course when they veered off course. The forest had ended some time ago and they were currently high above worked farmnd. Dink continuously channelled mana to his vision to peer through the darkness to match the Griffon’s inherent eyesight.

  The Griffon was beginning to lightly pant at the exhaustion of travelling probably a quarter of the entire Laughing Peaks without rest. Rarely leaving its territory, taking a break to recover was a foreign concept to the magical beast.

  Down below, a rge settlement illuminated by torchlight took shape on the ndscape. None of the residents reacted to the enormous predator as its shadow passed over sparsely poputed streets, its silhouette framed by the moonlight. In moments, they were leaving the sprawling city on the horizon.

  “We’re firmly in Tordrana’s borders now, that was Feetstop, a fairly major trade hub with Hatral and Ruskor kingdoms. It’s a lot bigger than the st I saw of it, it must be thriving,” Dink observed.

  He turned his attention forward, feeling their destination quickly approaching, a substantial forest within the kingdom of Tordrana. Dawn was cresting the horizon and beginning to illuminate the treetops to their east while they remained suspended in purple twilight.

  “Here we are. Land amid that forest, I will guide you where,” Dink instructed the Griffon in the arcane nguage. It roared in response, beginning to descend into the thicket.

  As they got closer to a clearing indicated by Dink, he saw countless Goblins scatter among the trees in abject terror. Their ramshackle huts were unable to handle the buffeting winds of the Griffon’s nding, colpsing sideways. In the centre of it all, a totemic throne was erected with a familiar reddish-brown Goblin sitting on it. Murkuk’s cheeks loosely fluttered as he winced against the wind, clutching the arms of his primitive throne.

  “Blight, a Goblin infestation. Someone call the exterminator,” Dink muttered, a wild grin forming on his face.

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